While there’s a great deal of data to be gathered from any website, there’s often a distinct shortage of real insight. In other words, sure you can see that people are leaving the site, but you usually have to just guess at the reason why. That’s why it can be important to give you customers different opportunities to provide their opinion or interact on your site.

One way to create just such an opportunity for interaction is to install a plug-in like Firef.ly. It’s a simple chat program that operates on the surface of your website. Visitors can communicate with each other through tiny chat bubbles that can be placed at points of interest. As an administrator, you can be an active participant in the conversation or a fly on the wall, just there to observe.

The firef.ly plugin is easy to install and appears as a simple toolbar at the bottom of your page. From here, chatters can access the site’s chat log or customize their chat persona with an avatar. Chatting is completely opt in and users don’t have to download anything to start talking. You never know what you might learn.